Large transportation passenger terminals (such as airports and train stations) have exhibited a need for rugged, low maintenance and versatile, self service carts for personal use. These carts have requirements such as convenience in use, availability, public acceptance, and durability, i.e. carts which are rugged and can withstand continuous day to day use and abuse by the public, with minimal required maintenance. In addition, many carts have a child seat.
Numerous cart designs have been applied to such applications in the past. However, relatively few cart systems have been used successfully in transportation facilities due to problems such as theft, lack of rental mechanisms, and cart distribution problems.
One cart system that has and is experiencing considerable success in airport terminals is the automatic self serving cart vending system which provides a reward for the return of the cart to strategically positioned vending islands. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,959, by the assignee hereof, hereby incorporated by reference. In that system, the individual carts cooperatively engage with one another in a "nesting" relationship, enabling high packing density in a relatively samll vending island, thereby offering considerable space saving and orderly cart distribution throughout a facility.
While the cart distribution concept disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,959 has proven itself over a number of years, improvements to the cart disclosed therein are taught in two additional patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,381,870 and 4,733,877, both by the assignee hereof and, both hereby incorporated by reference. While the carts disclosed in these references are very versatile, the cart described in U.s. Pat. No. 4,381,870 may be tipped over due to loading capabilities and weight distribution. The cart described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,877 represents an improvement in weight distribution and loadability of the carts. However, this cart is designed to be pulled, the handle is an obstruction to the easy loading of luggage, the front luggage restraint is a movable, short structure which is susceptible to ratling and other maintenance problems. In addition, as this restraint may not always completely be in a lowered state in a nesting operation, it provides a locus for entanglement of the nested carts.
Thus, a more easily loaded, durable cargo cart which offers expanded loading area is needed which does not experience tangling problems in nested storage.